What physical activity messages to people attend to, prefer, and evaluate more favourably?

Abstract

Physical activity promotion messages have received increasing empirical attention over the last decade, and despite contributions to the literature, researchers have advocated a need to utilize a more complex approach. The Comprehensive Messaging Strategy for Sustained Behavior Change (CMSSBC) is a recently conceptualized approach to messaging that may be a promising alternative to understanding how to effectively deliver physical activity promotion messages. This approach recommends that messages be tailored to the recipients stage of change (detection, decision, implementation, or maintenance stage), yet framed intrinsically, following a Self-Determination Theory conceptualization. This research served as a preliminary study designed to test participants' preferences for, attention to, and evaluation of physical activity promotion messages guided by the CMSSBC. Participants included 81 male, 211 female, and 1 transgender adult(s), aged 19 – 65 (Mage = 29.06), with BMI's that ranged from 17.22 to 52.45 (M = 25.53), and on average reported engaging in 37.02 METs of moderate to vigorous leisure-time physical activity. This cross-sectional study required participants to complete a demographic section, questions about their stage of change, motives, and goals for physical activity, and to evaluate eight physical activity promotion messages that were tailored to one of the stages of change and framed either intrinsically or extrinsically. The results of the study findings indicated that participants in general preferred the intrinsically framed messages as opposed to the extrinsically framed equivalent messages, and reported notable aversive reactions to the extrinsic messages, in particular the images.

Acknowledgments: Funded by the University of Lethbridge Research Fund